This invention relates to an improved electrical outlet floor box to be embedded in a poured concrete or the like floor, which has a cover assembly secured to the open top of a cylindrical housing member by a ball ring, enabling the upper surface of the cover assembly to remain parallel to the surface of the floor notwithstanding a deviation from normality of the cylindrical housing member's axis with respect to the surface of the floor.
In the past, electrical outlet floor boxes were of fixed height and the electrical outlet floor box cover assemblies had a fixed angular relationship with the rest of the floor box. This meant that unless the boxes were firmly anchored during the concrete pouring process, and unless the time consuming processes of leveling and grade shooting were employed, the boxes were often bumped into a non-vertical alignment and, at worst, would be buried by the concrete and, at best, the box cover would not be parallel or flush with the floor.
One solution to the above problem is provided by the Terry U.S. Pat. No. 3,343,704, which discloses an electrical outlet floor box with an elongated, cylindrical portion which may be sawed either flush with, or, at desired height from and parallel to the floor. The elongated cylindrical portion of the floor box makes it unlikely that the box will be buried during the concrete pouring process. The Terry patent solution to the problem of properly orienting the upper surface of the floor box to a floor surface when the cylindrical member has been knocked out of vertical alignment, is to provide a cover assembly having two downward projections upon which a ring is pivotally mounted. The ring is coaxially inserted within, and then cemented to the inside walls of, the cylindrical member. The cover assembly pivots on a single axis about the ring allowing it to remain flush or parallel with the floor. This ability to pivot about a single axis only, means that if the electrical outlet floor box has been tilted, the pivotally mounted ring must be cemented in place in a manner such that the axis running through the pivot is at right angles to the direction of tilt of the box. Extra time must then be spent adjusting the ring's pivotal axis, a job made more difficult when the direction of tilt of the electrical outlet floor box is not readily apparent.